American Jewish Groups Ask Mercy for Condemned Jews in Iraq

The American Jewish Committee and the B’nai B’rith this week-end appealed for the lives of two Jewish youths in Iraq condemned by Iraqi courts to death on charges of responsibility in the bombing of the American Information Center in Bagdad last March.

In cables to the Regent and Prime Minister of Iraq, Jacob Blausterin, A.J.C. president, said: “The extreme penalty visited upon the unfortunate youths has stunned the democratic world, particularly since the men were convicted under highly irregular procedures–procedures not only contrary to every known principle of democratic law but contrary to every spirit and letter of the laws of Iraq.” Mr. Blaustein pointed out that “an act of clemency will serve not only the interests of justice but increase the sincere regard of democratic nations for Iraq’s loyalty to the principle of human rights.”

In an appeal to United Nations Secretary General Trygve Lie, Frank Goldmann, president of B’nai B’rith, asked him to use his good offices to persuade the Iraqi Government to suspend the executions. Mr. Goldmann declared that “these youths are persecuted victims of anti-Jewish discrimination” and were convicted on the basis of a confession “extorted by torture.”

(The Israeli delegation at the U.N. General Assembly in Paris has circulated among the other delegations a letter to the president of the Assembly asking him to intervene to obtain clemency for the two Iraqi Jewish youths. The letter, signed by Abba Eban, chief Israeli delegate, points out that in no case has Israel put to death any Arab residents brought before its courts on capital offenses.)